Artist To Watch Mei Simones is embracing the momentum. The genre-hopping musician released her debut album Animaru this past May, which was then followed by the one-off single "Itsumo." Today, she's back with two more singles "Kurayami" and "Get Used To It."
Semones explained that "Kurayami" is Japanese for "darkness" and is about "growing up in Michigan and reminiscing on what it was like hanging out with my friends. Being a kid was really fun and I was happy, but I remember there was a point where we started to lose our innocence and I think this song is about that feeling." She added that it's one of the more complicated tracks she's written. "There's lots of fun tempo changes, odd meters, wide interval arpeggios, and fast licks, and I think the band arrangement is really creative too.”
On “Get used to it,” she revealed that the song is:
about the beauty in solitude and being alone, how to move on from something that was important in your life but still leave space for it, and my love for the guitar and music. It's the second song I wrote on my nylon string, and the changes and melody are somewhat inspired by Thelonious Monk. The instrumentation is more minimal than our other songs -- just me (guitar & vox), upright bass, and drums. We were going for a live jazz trio sound, so there's not really any layers or anything. It's just a straightforward recording of the 3 of us playing the tune, and I think that was the best way to capture the feeling behind the song.
Listen to both below.
